"There, there," Daphne said gently, standing on tiptoe to pat Tracey's back. "No need to cry again— I'm quite sure my sister will turn up… sooner or later."
"I suppose I sort of hoped she'd be waiting for us here when we got back, you know?" Tracey sniffled, dabbing at the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief. "She might be trapped— or hurt— or maybe even dead, for all we know!"
It hadn't taken much persuading for Dumbledore to convince the Weasleys to shelter Astoria, Daphne, and Tracey over the Christmas holidays. The small fraction of blood they shared mattered little; what truly counted was that, despite two of them being Slytherins, they had stood by Harry, Ron, and Hermione when it had mattered most.
But even two weeks after Oleandra's mysterious disappearance, the first day of class after the vacations having already come and gone, there was still no sign of her. For some, no news was good news, but Tracey was unconsolable.
She'd done her best not to dampen the Weasleys's Christmas with her quiet sniffles and forced smiles over the past two weeks, but now that she was back in the Slytherin dormitory, alone with Daphne in her room (Mafalda, as usual, was in the library), there was nothing stopping her from burying her face in a pillow and sobbing until her throat ached.
"We should hurry to the Great Hall, it's nearly time for dinner," said Daphne awkwardly. "I daresay Oleandra wouldn't want to see you like this, now, would she?"
Tracey blinked away her tears.
"I s'pose…" she said weakly. If all else failed, she could always eat her sorrows away.
Daphne and Tracey headed for the door, but as they stepped into the corridor, they caught sight of Pansy and Millicent emerging from their room as well, having seemingly had the same idea.
"You." Tracey's voice was low, dangerous. "Where's Draco Malfoy, you miserable little slut?" She strode towards Pansy and drew her wand in one fluid motion, pressing it hard against the soft spot beneath Pansy's chin. "Tell me, or so help me, I'll—"
Millicent growled and took a swipe at Pansy, only to find her limbs bound tightly in vines.
"Would you kindly call off your little maid?" sneered Pansy. She reached for Tracey's wand, but Tracey pushed even harder, driving the tip of her wand hard into her throat. "Stop it, enough, already!" Pansy spat. "I don't know where he is either, okay? He doesn't tell me everything he gets up to!"
Following the night Oleandra and Harry caught him sneaking the Dusk-Elf through the castle halls, Malfoy had seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth— and as far as Tracey and Daphne knew, he just might have— literally. With the chaos of the battle, nothing would've stopped him from slipping away to the Gateway hidden in the Room of Requirement… maybe he had returned to Nidavellir and then gone to any of the Nine Realms from there.
"Cru—"
Vines whipped around Tracey's mouth and wand arm, stopping her from casting something she might have regretted.
"Crazy bitch," gasped Pansy, massaging her throat. "Come on, Millicent, let's go."
Once the two girls were out of sight, Daphne released Tracey from her bindings.
"What did you do that for?" Tracey rounded on her. "She might have known something!"
Three questions lingered: Firstly, how had Malfoy managed to avoid the Secrecy Sensors and bring an intruder into the castle? Secondly, what had Malfoy been planning on doing with the Dusk-Elf that night? And thirdly, what had they done to Oleandra, for Harry to say she'd seemed to fade out of existence…?
"No, she wouldn't have," said Daphne quietly. "Come on, we should hurry up as well."
To redeem the Malfoy name after Lucius's humiliating failure to retrieve the Prophecy Orb, the Dark Lord had given Draco a task. It was the same task he had assigned to his Dark Lady— but there was a price for failure if he couldn't complete it before she did.
Draco couldn't directly interfere with her attempt, but indirectly…?
Daphne didn't know exactly what he was planning, though it was now clear the Dusk-Elf had somehow played some part in it. Still, she held one belief with unwavering certainty: he would not be the one to triumph in the end. And speaking of which…
"I forgot I had an errand to run before dinner," said Daphne offhandedly, just as they reached the bottom of the Grand Staircase. "Save me a seat at the table, would you kindly?"
Tracey nodded half-heartedly and began climbing the stairs to the Great Hall, while Daphne discreetly skirted around the stairs to the corridor that led to the Hufflepuff common room and the kitchens.
Before entering the Great Hall, Tracey took a quick detour to the out-of-order girls' bathroom on the second floor to take a deep breath. The Ministry's official stance with the public was that Oleandra had not disappeared, but had rather gone abroad on an all-expenses-paid trip to train with Europe's greatest duellists.
She couldn't afford to show any weakness to the other students. For Oleandra's sake.
"Your eyes are red," said Moaning Myrtle with morbid interest, her head popping out of the cracked mirror Tracey had been using. "Ooh, have you been crying? Tell me everything— I love a good tragic story!"
"Get lost," said Tracey sullenly.
"Well, fine, then!" said Myrtle indignantly.
She flew straight through Tracey's body, leaving her feeling like she'd just taken a cold shower. Then, slipping into an open stall, she plunged down the toilet inside, performing an avant-garde impression of a Skibidi Toilet and blowing her a cheeky raspberry.
Once Tracey was satisfied she was presentable, she made her way back down the stairs to the Great Hall. Daphne was waiting for her at the table, and together they shared a quiet dinner amid the storm of background noise that filled the hall.
When dessert appeared on the table, Tracey pushed her plate aside and stood to leave— and that's when she heard Blaise's sharp tongue cut through the chatter.
"You lost, Potter?" he sneered. "The table for Mudbloods and blood traitors is on the other side of the hall."
"Tracey Davis, Daphne Greengrass, Theodore Nott," came Harry's voice behind her. "Professor Dumbledore wants to see us all in his office tonight at eight."